Was Leonardo a proponent of sprawl? The Renaissance man evidently believed the congestion of cities caused plagues in Milan in the 1480s, and drew up plans for a new city with wide streets and a network of canals.
Da Vinci's plans were a "radical departure from the organic fabric of the medieval city," writes Anamika Mishra:
Circulation was a predominant theme in Leonardo's proposals, whether related to people, freight or waste. This was articulated by straight roads in a grid iron pattern and the extensive use of waterways as a means of circulation.
Leonardo's proposal for segregating the various aspects of a city, in order to maintain sanitation created a very tangible functional zoning, an attribute adopted centuries later by modernist urban planners."
A map of Milan, drawn by Da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus
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